Device for expanding articles of flexible material



(N0 Medal.)

0. L. HIGGINS.

DEVICE FOR EXPANDING ARTICLES 01? FLEXIBLE MATERIAL.

No. 300,365. Patented June 17, 1884.

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Unirnn grains ATET @rrrcn (THAI-{LES L. IIIGGIXS, OF MONTREAL, QUEBEC, OANADA, ASSIGXOR TO JOHN E. W'I'IEELEI-l, TRUSTEE, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

DEVICE FOR EXPANDlNG ARTICLES OF FLEXEBLE MATERIAL.

EPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 300,365, dated June 1'7, 1884.

- Application filed April 14, 1884. (No model.)

5 Great Britain, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Devices for Expanding Articles of Flexible Material, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My present invention is intimately connected with the inventions secured to me by Letters Patent No. 291,188 and No. 291,729, and dated, respectively, January 1 and 8, A. 1)., 1884, and is designed to more perfectly and efficiently perform the work, or aid in performing it, than is otherwise possible; and it consists, essentially, in inserting a form inside the flexible inflator in such amanner as to aid the locating of the inflator and to resist the tendency of spherical formation, and a better adaptation of the external surface of the inflator to the natural conformation of the article expanded.

In order to better explain the working and practical benefits of inyinvention, I illustrate its use in connection with a rubber bag or flexible inflatable form, and refer to the acconipanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and in which like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Figure 1 is the outline of the form used.

Fig. 2 is aside elevation of an inflator, with thin and is inserted inside the infiator.

\Vhile the device represented in my former patents aforesaid answers the purposes intended very well, I found that the tendency of the inflator was to take a spherical form when distended, and when inserted in a shoe for the purpose of showing its form it rounded out the sides of the upper of the shoe which were contiguous to the points I) b of the inflator. This naturally detracted somewhat from the sym metry of the outline of the shoe. I further found that in the case oflight shoes the tendency was to draw in the front of the shoe contigu ous to the point e of the inflator. As the inflator is inserted in the shoe before it is distended, it is sometimes difficult to properly insert and adjust the point in the toe of the shoe. All of these defects or objections I am able to overcome by placinginsidetheinflator the form shown and described. The form by the process of inflation automatically adjusts itself upon the central line of the shoe, and the result is that the inflator invariably adapts itself easily to the entire internal surface of the upper, and, being distended, it does not draw any part of the shoe out of its natural form or symmetry.

While I have described this form as applied to a shoe, I do not intend to confine it to this alone, as itis of equal efficiency when used in inflators used to distend or give fullness or shape to other articles, the form used of course to be varied in shape according to the circumstances of each case.

hat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The form A, in combination with the clastic inflator B, arranged and adapted as described, and for the purposes specified.

2-. In a device for giving shape to flexible hollow articles by elastic pressure, a narrow" form held within the device, having the general outline of the article, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

CHARLES L. HIG GIYS. In presence of i J OHN E. XVHEELER,

BOWDOIN S. PARKER. 

